Headlines continue to alarm parents about the safety of school environments. In Brewster, NY, 8 Guatemalan men who were in the USA illegally were arrested for trespassing on school grounds while playing soccer at the school. A rumor soon spread that they had been sleeping on the school’s roof, or in the basement. The school administration denies that they ever entered the building or slept on the roof, as security systems and motion detectors would have been triggered. The rumor shows a fear, an insecurity that lingers about the security of the school, and the presence of day laborers who are illegal immigrants in town.
In Longwood, Florida, near Orlando, an apparently suicidal 15 year old 8th grader was fatally shot by a SWAT team after threatening another child with a pellet gun fashioned to look like a 9 mm handgun. After threatening another student with the gun, deputies attempted to talk him into surrendering. He raised the weapon, and the swat team fired. During the confrontation the student said that he was going to commit suicide or die. The student’s parents attempted to tell the authorities during the confrontation that the gun was a pellet gun, not a handgun – apparently that message did not get through to the SWAT team.
These incidents are two types of safety our schools have to be concerned with. The first concerns intrusions from outsiders, and questions of homeland security in some areas. The second is much more disturbing, because it is an extreme example of the lengths to which a disturbed youth will go to kill himself and harm others physically and emotionally in the process.
Because even the best of students cannot succeed in a school environment, our schools have a responsibility to assure a safe environment. Protecting against intruders is an easier task that protecting against a violent student. Many schools, like the one in upstate New York, have a security system. Often during the day schools now routinely buzz visitors in the front door, or have a hall monitor in the front of the building to greet them, sign them in, and have them wear a visitor badge so that everyone knows they belong there. Some schools are also equipped with video systems. A good school safety system integrates technology with human awareness – everyone makes safety a priority, from the principal to the teachers and staff, to the students, and the parents.
Protecting students from violent peers is another matter. Perhaps increasing suicide prevention programs, access to hotlines, and increased contact with parents to monitor violent episodes are some ways we could improve. Something went wrong with the emergency response in Longwood – had the SWAT team known it was a pellet gun, perhaps their response would have been different. That definitely needs to be examined and changed. Also, this boy was older than the average 8th grader – perhaps when middle schools are coping with violent students older than their peers, there might be some need to utilize counseling services and approaches that are more commonly used in high school.
But I have another question, a painful, personal one…..Why do you allow a disturbed 8th grader to have a pellet gun at all, let alone one that is modified to look like a handgun? When I was young, some of my peers had “bb” guns, to learn how to hunt small game with their fathers. But they were taught about gun safety – and the parents knew where the gun was – and they did not carry it around. The ‘bb’ guns looked like small rifles, not like handguns. Perhaps one way to control tragic mistakes like this in the future is to control the access minors have to pellet guns in general, particularly those designed to look like handguns and automatic weapons. While we are waiting for laws to catch up with this, the responsibility is with parents to keep weapons like this out of the hands of their children.
I have no problem with 15 year olds owning bb guns with their parents’ awareness and consent. Target practice, hunting, these are all legitimate uses for a pellet gun. I have a problem with suicidal 15 year olds being allowed to own a bb gun that looks like a 9mm Beretta. I can see no legitimate need for such a weapon to be in the hands of one so young. Without legal and parental control, there is little a school can do to prevent this type of accident until the crisis is full blown.
Schools don’t exist in a vacuum. Parents, community representative, lawmakers, law enforcement have all got to come together on this one.